Jordan W. Smoller, MD, ScD

"With the Partners Biobank, we hope to create a large research sample and data repository that will be an engine for new discoveries. The Partners Biobank will contain blood samples that are linked with health, lifestyle, and family history information. This biobank will be used by different types of researchers from Partners and elsewhere who are studying the causes of common diseases. My own research is aimed at understanding the roles that genes and experience play in mental health and mental illness. Conditions like depression, autism, schizophrenia, and posttraumatic stress disorder are among the leading causes of disability and suffering worldwide. And with the unique resource that the biobank provides, we hope to improve treatment for these conditions and provide new ways to personalize treatment so that we can find the best treatment for each person- Jordan W. Smoller

Dr. Jordan W. Smoller is Co-Investigator for the Partners Biobank, Associate Chief for Research of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Psychiatry, and Director of Psychiatric Genetics at MGH. He is Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

Education

1992, MD (cum laude with honors in a special field), Harvard Medical School

1997, MS, Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health

2001, ScD, Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health

Biography

Dr. Smoller is Director of the Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit in the MGH Center for Human Genetics Research. He also serves as co-director of the Genetics and Genomics Unit of the MGH Clinical Research Program, is an Associate Member of the Broad Institute and a Senior Scientist at the Broad’s Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. The focus of Dr. Smoller’s research interests has been the identification of genetic determinants of childhood and adult psychiatric disorders. Dr. Smoller and colleagues have also been studying genetic predictors of treatment response and the ways in which advances in genetics may impact clinical practice in psychiatry. He is an author of more than 200 scientific articles, book chapters and reviews; the recipient of numerous research awards; and a principal investigator on NIH-funded studies of the genetics of anxiety and the genetics of bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia as well as brain imaging phenotypes. He is also the author of The Other Side of Normal (HarperCollins/William Morrow, 2012).

Cross-Disorder Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. Identification of risk loci with shared effects on five major psychiatric disorders: a genome-wide analysis. Lancet. 2013 Apr 20;381(9875):1371-9. PMID: 23453885